Breathing on Zeiss ZF lenses

[dadoboy]

Does anyone here use the Zeiss ZF lens set (manual focus, nikon mount) on an adapter or the RED?
I've heard that the optical qualities are excellent - up to par with their cinema lenses, and I know the focus marks are not that good for drama.

My question is how is the Breathing on these lenses?

I was playing around with some mamiya and bronica medium format lenses this weekend, god they would be utterly unusable in cinema they breathe so badly as bad as bad zooms.

[Dennis Wood]

You can directly observe the breathing on these lenses at Cinevate's Video University (http://www.cinevate.com/website/index.php/cinevatevideouniversity/). The clip you need is the "The Brevis MP.1 Zeiss Lens Review and EX1 FIX Test Footage". We've also got a fairly detailed look at the 28, 35, 50, 85 and 100mm glass there. In general, breathing is less at the wider angles but once you get to the 85 and 100mm macro, it's more noticeable. Our decision to stock the Zeiss lenses was a direct result of these tests.

Cheers
Dennis.

[dadoboy]

Thanks for pointing out your tests Dennis. Yes the breathing looks quite good on those Zeiss ZF's from what I can tell. Cosina or whoever makes them (through license) does a great job. It's too bad they had to follow Nikon's traditional "reverse" focus direction. I may shell out for a set in 2009 and have them geared. I think it's more important these days to have good lens sets than camera bodies. The lens sets can be used on a variety of platforms.

[Dennis Wood]

I couldn't agree more. Because they are full format lenses, and fully manual, this means that any of the Zeiss ZF mount lenses can mount to any Nikon or Canon EOS(via a physical adapter) body. The fact that we used 30 year old LOMO cinema lenses on "Undertow" is a testament to the longevity of good glass. We did not have the Zeiss lenses for that shoot, but we now use little else. Essentially our primary lens kit is the set of 5 Zeiss lenses in combination with two Nikon zooms..the 17-35 f2.8d and 80-200 f2.8d.

[utopeya]

Dennis, this question may have been answered elsewhere, but can the Durus correct for the "reverse" focusing direction of Nikon lenses?

[Dennis Wood]

Ut, the Durus follow focus can be mounted in either side of the lens, and can be configured independently on each side for either focus direction. We're working on new asymetrically mounted focus rings that will also allow more flexibility when using matteboxes out front.